The University of Notre Dame’s Creative Writing Program has been ranked 13th in the nation in a new poll conducted by the readers of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In the survey, which polled respondents on Speakeasy, an on-line discussion board run by the magazine, Notre Dame tied with the University of Washington and joined such institutions as the Universities of Iowa, Michigan and Massachusetts in the top 15.
Moving up one spot from last year’s poll, the program has made “the largest leap in popularity of any school in America over the past 10 years,” according to an article about the poll in the 2008 edition of The Creative Writing MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students, referring also to improved rankings in polls in such publications as U.S. News & World Report and the Kealey/Abramson funding ranking.
The article also mentions Notre Dame’s program as a big draw for poets, in particular, who “are flocking in large numbers to Notre Dame – not surprising given the excellence of the poetry faculty, starting with Cornelius Eady and Joyelle McSweeney.”
A component of Notre Dame’s Department of English, the Creative Writing Program is a two-year master of fine arts program centered on workshops in poetry and fiction and offers courses in literature, translation, literary publishing and thesis preparation. The highly selective program admits just 10 writers each year.
More information is available on the Creative Writing Program site.
Contact: Coleen Hoover, Creative Writing Program, 574-631-7526, Hoover.14@nd.edu
Original press release: News and Information.